I couldn't help but think of the time Jon Stewart went on Crossfire and Tucker Carlson attempted to ridicule his approach at news when I compared Fox News to the Daily Show today. On Crossfire, Stewart tried to get it through Carlson's thick head that he did not claim to be a "real" news anchor, nor was he trying to report on the real news. He repeated time and again that his was a comedy show, not a news program - Carlson didn't understand this, much like he probably does not understand evolution.
Indeed, the stark differences between the Daily Show and network news are innumerable. However, I was lucky enough to see the two programs share a topic - the swine flu that has been spotted around the globe. Fox made a huge deal of it, and included a number of talking heads speculating about the possibility of the swine flu becoming a pandemic if the virus mutates (all of whom were staunch conservatives who undoubtedly refute the theory of evolution, but do not hesitate to declare that the virus has the potential to mutate into something more adaptable. Does that seem like a paradox to you, too?). Stewart's show seemed to consider the swine flu much less of a threat, labeling it as "Snoutbreak 2009" and suggesting that, since the virus has genes from human, pig, and avian sources, it could have resulted from a man making love to a turkey club with bacon.
Attempting to compare the Daily Show to a real network news program is like comparing John Kerry to a human being. While Kerry may appear to be human, he lacks many of the things that essentially make someone human - just like the Daily Show lacks a number of things that would make it a real network news program. But again, Stewart does not claim to host a network news show, his show is comedy, not news. This doesn't stop people from taking it as seriously as a news program, though..
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